| In
This Article:
Runny tar is poured on badly
decayed asphalt roof shingles and spread around with an old
broom. |
Related
Articles:
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| Skill Level:
2 (Basic) |
Time Taken:
Less Than One Hour |
By
Bruce W. Maki,
Editor
Warning: Working
on a roof can be dangerous. Read Tips
On Not Dying from an earlier roofing article.
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From the ground these shingles didn't look
too bad, but from up on the roof it was obvious that
these shingles need replacing. |
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A Closer View:
This garage is 28 years old, and I'm sure that the
shingles have never been replaced.
These are absolutely the worst, most deteriorated
shingles I've ever seen, and I'm ashamed to say that
I own them. |
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This gray spot is roofing cement (from a
caulk tube) that I applied about one year ago to try to
stop a minor roof leak.
I had applied roofing cement to a couple dozen
possible weak spots. It seemed to help because water
stopped dripping onto my workbench, but I could still
see wetness on the underside of the plywood where it met
one of the roof trusses.
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I Hate Cheap Fixes... So Why Did I Do This?
My larger goal is to improve the appearance of the garage by
increasing the amount of overhang on the gable ends and reducing the
overhang on the eaves, plus some other changes that are too complex
to describe here. I wanted to finish this project well before winter
but as autumn progressed I realized that my ambitions were
distracting me from other important tasks, like writing articles for
HammerZone.com and doing coursework for some computer graphics
classes I've been taking. With warm weather all but gone for the
year I decided to investigate a temporary roofing repair that would
last until spring and stop the minor roof leak. My plan was to tear
off the shingles and install one of the new synthetic shingle
underlayment products that are capable of withstanding the elements
for six months or more. This project would involve removing the old
shingles, hauling them away and installing the new underlayment to
the roof sheathing. This would require a day or two of dry weather,
certainly possible in Northern Michigan in mid-November.
But then I decided to take an even easier approach and just try a
quick-and-dirty roof patch method: applying tar to the
most-deteriorated shingles in the area of the leak. This repair cost
20 bucks and took about an hour including time to clean the
tar-covered tools.
Clean The Roof First:
Using a push broom, I first swept the leaves and tree
branches from the roof. Then I dragged an air hose up to
the roof and used an air nozzle to blow the remaining
debris from the areas to be patched. There was a lot of
junk in the spaces between the shingle tabs and I knew
that I needed to remove this debris or the tar might not
adhere properly.
I figure that a leaf blower would also blow off the
debris if compressed air was not available.
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Some of my tools and materials:
The tar is DeWitt's Wet-Stick Roof and Foundation
Coating, which I bought at Home Depot for $6.47 a
gallon.
The small trowel on the left is a mason's brick
trowel. This tool is good for scraping the last bit of
tar from the can.
The charcoal starter fluid is a convenient solvent
for cleaning tar that got on the wrong places. |
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The main tool: An old corn broom.
I trimmed off the ends of the bristles because... I
just had a hunch that it would work better with shorter
and stiffer bristles. |
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| Ready, Set, GO:
I poured the tar from the can...
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...and spread it around with the broom.
I found that it's important to brush the tar downhill
as much as possible, to prevent the shingle tabs from
tearing. I was able to carefully brush in a
sideways motion as long as I watched to make sure I
wasn't lifting up the shingles. |
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| The first can covered about 8 square feet.
I turned the can upside down to let the residual tar
drip out. Then I used the brick trowel to scrape the
remaining tar from the can, wiping the trowel on the
broom. |
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Three gallons of tar covered about 30
square feet.
It took me about 20 minutes to apply this tar. |
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This tar product is fairly thin and runny. The tar poured easily
from the can, and I'm sure the tar would eventually run all the way
to the edge of the roof if I didn't spread it around right away. To
keep the material warm I kept the cans of tar inside the house
before using them. This tar seemed to get thicker as it cooled down
in the 45-degree outdoor temperature.
Note the difference between plastic roof cement and this
roof and foundation coating. Roof cement is very thick and
requires considerable effort to scoop it from the can. Roof cement
may be useful for some areas where a thick layer is needed, but it
is difficult to spread around in a thin layer. Roof cement can be
miserable to use when cold because it gets quite stiff. On a hot day
roof cement flows pretty easily.
| The next day I took a close-up picture of
this repair job. The tar was still tacky but I could
tell that many of the potential leak spots had been
covered by the coating of tar. |
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Cleaning Up:
A lot of people would just throw away this broom because cleaning
up sticky tar can be such a hassle. I don't fault anyone for
discarding a cheap tool like this, but tar-covered tools can be
cleaned up with a little effort.
| I put the broom and trowel in an empty
5-gallon drywall mud bucket. Then I poured in almost a
gallon of used mineral spirits.
After using mineral spirits to clean paint brushes or
greasy auto parts, I just pour the liquid into an empty
paint thinner jug that is clearly marked as
"used". The solid particles settle to the
bottom leaving reasonably clear mineral spirits on top.
This jug of used mineral spirits looks black
because I recently used it to clean up the same broom
for another roof patch job. |
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After rinsing the broom and trowel with dirty-looking used
mineral spirits, I rinsed them again using about half a quart of clean
mineral spirits. To shake the liquid from the bristles I just
held the broom handle between the palms of my hands and rubbed my
hands back-and-forth to spin the broom and fling out the excess
liquid. Of course, I did this over the drywall bucket.
Charcoal Lighter Fluid vs. Paint
Thinner:
Many years ago a chemist explained to me that
charcoal starter fluid is simply mineral spirits (paint
thinner) that has been run through an activated charcoal
filter to remove the odor-causing chemicals. Odorless
mineral spirits is often sold alongside regular mineral
spirits, for a higher price. For many years I have kept
a couple of cans of charcoal starter fluid on hand,
simply as a convenient package of paint thinner. I've
been buying the stuff when I shop for groceries at
Save-A-Lot, which has the lowest price I've seen.
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Finally:
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The patch has a shiny black appearance,
which is kinda ugly. This shine will become dull in a
few months as sunlight starts to degrade the tar.
Eventually the tar will turn a dull gray color, since
bituminous asphalt cannot tolerate the ultraviolet light
in sunlight.
Consequently this patch is temporary. I will be
surprised if this tar doesn't become badly cracked
within six months. |
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Warning:
A cheap tar patch like this WILL NOT LAST VERY
LONG. The lifespan depends on the amount of sunlight
received by the tar.
I'm confident that the asphalt will survive until
next spring because the sunlight isn't very strong in
the winter, and the roof will be covered by snow for
much of the winter. |
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I have seen unprotected tar patch jobs survive for a couple of
years if the patch did not receive much direct sunlight. I've heard
that bituminous asphalt (which includes roofing tar) will last about
6 months when fully exposed to sunlight. Consequently asphalt is
always covered with something durable.
For example, until a couple of decades ago flat roofs were
routinely made from several layers of tar paper bonded with
hot-mopped asphalt tar. The asphalt was covered with a layer of
gravel to protect the asphalt from sunlight. This process has been
seen on Discovery Channel's show Dirty Jobs.
Ordinary roof shingles are made from asphalt-impregnated paper
(now with fiberglass reinforcement) that is covered with fine
granules of colored stone. The granules eventually fall off, leaving
the asphalt exposed to sunlight. Any abrasion on asphalt shingles,
such as walking on them or scraping snow from the roof, will cause
more granules to fall off, which will accelerate the deterioration.
More Info:
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Tools
Used:
- Air
Compressor
- Air
Nozzle
- Corn
Broom
- Mason's
Brick Trowel
- Latex
Gloves
- 5 Gallon
Drywall Bucket (For Clean Up)
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Materials
Used:
- DeWitt's
Wet-Stick Roof and Foundation Coating
- Charcoal
Starter Fluid or Mineral Spirits (For
Clean Up)
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| Related
Articles:
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| Web
Links:
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Warning About
Roof Safety:
Working on a roof can be dangerous. Read Tips
On Not Dying from an earlier article. |
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